Mad Men – Smoke Gets In Your Eyes Review

What a great introduction to a show. It set up everything you needed to know about the character of Don Draper and the world that he’s living in. The casual racism and sexism at play while he’s nervously scribbling away on a napkin really got me hooked in quickly, and willing to stay for the duration of the show. Not that the rest of the show was difficult to watch, but there was a lot to take in. We’re introduced to quite a few characters, and we’re dumped in to a time period that seems like a totally different world, even though in the grand scheme of things it wasn’t all that long ago.

But the show makes us feel like we’re really watching these real people in the 60’s, not a bunch of people playing dress up in retro clothing. There’s nothing really overt, it’s an overall aesthetic that really works. We see a lot of the background of the period through the eyes of Don’s new secretary Peggy on her first day at work (a tried and true plot device) learning that her sex appeal is probably more important in this office than any actual ability. At least to everybody except Don. It’s not that he’s a white knight, he’s just disconnected from everybody, a fact which businesswoman Rachel Menken seems surprised to find.

I’m really looking forward to seeing how the rest of this series plays out. We weren’t given a great deal of depth for Don in this episode, just enough to whet our appetite for more.